Laurence Alvin Lovette, the man on trial for the murder of former student body president Eve Carson, declined to testify in court Thursday, as the prosecution rested its case.
Prosecutors presented an enhanced surveillance video to jurors that showed who they say is Lovette in the driver’s seat of Carson’s SUV at the Bank of America ATM on Willow Drive.
James Trevillian, a State Bureau of Investigation agent who specializes in forensic photography, said he enhanced the lighting of the video to allow the jury to see the image of two people in the backseat of the vehicle.
Prosecutors used the video to corroborate Jayson McNeil’s testimony that Lovette had driven Carson’s car to the ATM while DeMario Atwater kept Carson in the backseat. Atwater, who, unlike Lovette, was eligible for the death penalty, was sentenced to two counts of life in prison after pleading guilty in federal court Sept. 23, 2010.
McNeil, a 20-year-old convicted drug dealer with an extensive criminal history, told the jury what Lovette told him about Carson’s death in the days following the murder in court Tuesday.
Prosecutors say Lovette and Atwater abducted Carson from her home shortly after 3:30 am March 5, 2008, took her to at least one ATM to withdraw money, and finally shot her to death in a Chapel Hill neighborhood close to campus.
The defense declined to present evidence, and spent most of the seventh day of testimony in the trial arguing that McNeil, Shanita Love and Jeffrey Harris, the key witnesses in the case, had a bias or motive in implicating Lovette, who is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, armed robbery and felony larceny.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
SBI agent Phillip Stevens, the lead investigator in the case, said repeatedly in court Thursday that the witnesses’ testimonies have remained consistent over time.